Political Ju-Jitsu in Tallahassee

The action in Tallahassee is heating up mightily as the session winds down for 2016.  Of continuing, particular interest to me is seeing language become law that respects individual constitutional officers’ right to choose, individually, whether or not to belong to a taxpayer-funded membership association.

The Senate adopted the language in the house-passed HB1155 on Tuesday which would have allowed individual freedom of choice in advocacy for conservative school board members like me.  Yesterday, just before the vote on this bill was to happen, Sen Stargel, the bill’s sponsor, TP’d the bill (temporarily postponed it).

“She’s whipping votes” was the reaction from several supporters present in the Gallery.

Shortly thereafter-she added individual freedom of choice in advocacy language from HB 1155 to Sen. Gaetz’s massive Train  HB 7029 as a floor amendment.  This amendment passed 28-12—with notable support from two Democrats (Montford, Ring).

Next, Gaetz’s massive bill went back to the House.  According to sources familiar with the events

Where the Lost Students Went

With the Escambia County School District's recent improvement in graduation rates, some questioned the uptick.  Some blog comments from some posters even went so far as to insinuate that numbers of students were mis-coded purposely to make the graduation rate appear better than it really is.

Some wondered what happened to the cohort's numbers, a cohort that saw a reduction of nearly 1000 students over the four year period that culminated with the graduation of the class of 2015 in May of 2015.

So during a recent workshop I asked the question about this reduction in student numbers, and I asked for data backup to know for sure where the lost students went.

Today I received the data.  Below is a one page paper showing the breakdown of the missing students and the codes corresponding to the reason for the students' withdrawal from our district.

....and the next two pages explain what the codes mean

Why Are We Being Asked to Pay FSBA Dues ($21,766 Yearly) Four Months Before they are Due?

It is a very simple question that will be asked at this Friday morning's special workshop.

My AAA membership runs through July 1st, I pay the renewal at the end of June.

My wife's magazine subscription expires at the end of may, so I pay the renewal in early to mid May?

Who in the heck pays a yearly membership renewal four months early?  Why are we being asked to pay FSBA's exorbitant invoice four months early this year??

I have a sneaking suspicion it is because there is a bill that has already passed overwhelmingly in the House and is on the Special Order Calendar for coming Tuesday in the Senate which would overhaul the way FSBA collects dues statewide.

SB 1426 (HB1155) -- Sponsored in the House by Eric Eisnaugle, Sponsored in the Senate by Kelli Stargel and Co-Sponsored in the Senate by our own Sen. Don Gaetz--will take effect upon becoming law and it will allow individual board members the option to "opt-out" of paying their individual portion of dues to membership organizations such as FSBA.

I have passionately championed the concept of this bill over the last two years in Tallahassee, locally, and statewide because business as usual and the status-quo must be challenged here!  FSBA joined the unions and other special interests recently, suing the state, the Governor and the Legislature challenging duly enacted legislation that benefitted 70,000 poor, primarily minority students.  They were using taxpayer money to fight Tallahassee leadership over OUR TAXPAYER MONEY. It is ridiculous!

Not only this, but FSBA has been unresponsive to conservative ideas put forth by conservative board members like me for a decade---and they charge a literal fortune for dues, collecting more than $1.2 Million in Taxpayer money yearly just for base level dues membership from School Boards around Florida.

Then, to add injury to insult, every other training and professional development conference they offer comes at an additional charge to taxpayers.  Gravy over the top, at your expense, Mr. Taxpayer.

Enough!

Some training (yearly ethics training) is offered for free by other School Board associations in Florida--yet the FSBA continues to charge their MEMBERS $155.00 each to receive their

Baseball in High Schools: Is this Sport in Decline Due to Costs?

“What is going on with the Baseball programs in the Escambia County School District anyway?” Was the curious question from a parent of a freshman player at one of our local, North-end high schools. 

“We just heard that Escambia’s freshman ball team has to end its season, and PHS and Washington did not even have enough students to field a freshman team to start the season” he continued.  “Our school had just 15 players try out for the freshman team---and just a few years back we had over 30!  So what is going on with Baseball in the Escambia County School District? This area has been, historically, a hotbed for baseball, sending many players to the minor and major leagues---so what do you think is going on—is it the costs?” he asked

He went on to describe his fear that the rising costs of player participation could be keeping some players sidelined.  With high equipment costs, and expensive player fees to participate—could it be 

When the Story of a Student Comes Full Circle.....

It was a beautiful, almost Spring-like day two Saturdays ago when I happened to be walking through a neighborhood in West Pensacola for my current campaign for County Commission.

As we approached the woman on the riding lawn mower, she greeted us with a smile and shut down the machine so we could give her our campaign talking points and literature.

She politely listened, and then she looked over to me and said, "I wish you all would do something about that Zero Tolerance against the students!"  To which I replied, "We no longer have Zero Tolerance in our policy, and we only now have minimum mandatory penalties for severe infractions like Bomb Threats and bringing a Firearm to school"
"Well," she continued, "You all at the School Board crushed my daughter and it wasn't fair what you did"   Prying, I inquired, "What did your daughter do, and what did WE do?"

And here's where the story of a student comes full circle...

"She was a good student, a great student, that never got into trouble, ever.  She made one mistake, and it did not hurt anyone, it was not violent, and she was forthright and told the truth!" The mom said.  "Even the Principal of the school asked that she not be kicked out for a year--but the School Board Kicked her out of XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX High School anyway!"  Why?"

At that very moment, a chill went up my back even though it was warm and sunny.  I felt that awkward sensation of the hair on my neck standing up.  I knew this story from a few years earlier, because I had voted against the expulsion.  The student in question was an honor student with a GPA above 4.0 and no previous referrals.  But she made two mistakes.  One, she had some sort of a tryst in

Congratulations to Ransom Middle School's Kristy Imhof, 2016 Escambia County Teacher of the Year

Ransom Middle School's Kristy Imhof was selected to be 2016's Escambia County Teacher of the year at the Golden Apple Awards Banquet this past Thursday Evening.  Congratulations to Kristy, and all the nominees, and all the hard working teachers in our district!

Huge Day In Tallahassee Yesterday: Membership Association Bill Passes the House

Yesterday was a monumental day in Tallahassee:  The House of Representatives passed the Membership Association Bill (HB 1155)-- that I have been pushing for two years--- by an overwhelmingly large margin (78-36) , And then the  Senate Appropriations Committee blasted through the Senate’s version of this same bill (SB 1426)  in blistering fashion (less than two minutes --32:00 to 33:45-- of this video), with no debate.  The Senate bill then subsequently passed favorably out of committee by an overwhelmingly huge 14-1 margin-- with only one dissenting vote.

I just scratch my head and wonder why some folks just will not support this bill…..….

This bill allows freedom of choice in advocacy for School Board Members that are elected Constitutional Officers---the same sort of freedom of choice in advocacy that ALL other Florida Constitutional Officers currently enjoy!  (Florida property appraisers, for instance, have two separate and distinct statewide associations from which appraisers can pick; Senators and Representatives in the Florida legislature that are in the minority party are allowed to direct their portion (s) of state funded advocacy dues to “progressive” advocacy organizations  (see  minute 85:30 of this video )

Why shouldn't school board members enjoy the freedom of choice?

I thought progressives love “choice?”

 I guess “choice” is only “good” when it benefits them or a cause which progressives support. 

 Conservative school board members, according to the partisan vote totals I’m seeing in yesterday’s votes from Tallahassee, apparently should NOT enjoy “choice.” 

As Spock from Star Trek might have observed on this curious display of overt hypocrisy, “Fascinating.”

But I believe liberals and Conservatives-together with progressives- all should support this bill, because in this context choice is good and it is fair--there is no disputing this known fact of reality.

And I hope the full Senate will pass this bill and I certainly hope that Governor Scott will subsequently sign it into law.